


You don’t have to be a ghost, here amongst the living (You are flesh and blood, and you deserve to be loved)

by Veriatas



Series: What the Water Gave Me (Selkie'verse) [8]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Bruce Wayne is a serial adopter, Cassandra Cain Needs a Hug, Fluff, Gen, Selkie!Bruce Wayne, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28355970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veriatas/pseuds/Veriatas
Summary: There was a child on the beach.Bruce felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Bruce Wayne, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake
Series: What the Water Gave Me (Selkie'verse) [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781317
Comments: 26
Kudos: 254





	You don’t have to be a ghost, here amongst the living (You are flesh and blood, and you deserve to be loved)

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to the wonderful [Bumpkin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bumpkin) for being my beta!
> 
> Title from Florence and the Machine.

There was a child on the beach.

Bruce felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

Unlike Tim, this kid didn’t appear to have any sort of camera with them. No, they were small, and their clothes were far more ragged than Tim’s ever were. Their feet were bare.

Bruce walked closer cautiously. The child watched him come, and tilted their head back to meet his eyes. He felt a shiver run down his spine.

Those eyes were deep and vast, with an unsettling amount of knowledge held within them. It made Bruce feel like he was a pup again, mesmerized by the ocean and all of it’s crashing power, caught in a grip he couldn’t escape. 

Then the moment passed, and all he saw was ordinary eyes. They weren’t even blue - Bruce didn’t know why he’d thought they were. Instead, they were a deep shade that almost verged on black, and he couldn’t quite tell what colour they truly were. Still, there wasn’t anything _particularly_ unusual about them.

There was still something fae in their gaze, though.

Something otherworldly.

Bruce shook his head, bemused at his fanciful thoughts. He didn’t discard the initial impression though. Sometimes, it was wise to trust your instincts - there’s often more to people than what can be seen.

“Hello. What brings you to our beach, kiddo?” The child looked at him and tilted their head in confusion, but didn’t respond. Bruce frowned. Then he thought of the crushing sense of power in the child’s gaze, so reminiscent of the ocean itself, and tried again in Atlantean. “Hello? What brings you to our shore?” They furrowed their brows at him and studied him curiously for a while, before plonking themself down on the sand and turning their attention back to the waves.

Bruce cautiously sat down with them, watching them as they watched the waves. They sat there together for a few long minutes, before the child reached out their hand as a wave rushed in, and _pulled._

The wave, which should have broken and washed out long before it reached their feet, rushed up the shoreline and crashed into them. The child turned to look at Bruce, mischief in their eyes, and giggled at his stunned expression.

Of all the things he was expecting to see on the beach today, an ocean spirit wasn’t among them. Especially not one who appeared so young.

He reached back in his memory, straining to recall the few pieces of the ancient ocean tongue that Alfred had taught him long ago. With halting words and respectful tones, he carefully asked the spirit for their name.

They smiled at him, and once more Bruce was overwhelmed by the feeling of deep waters and crashing power, caught in a gaze both very young and very ancient all at once.

Then the sensation disappeared as abruptly as it arrived, as the spirit placed a hand on their chest and said “Cass.” Then they pointed at him.

Bruce touched a finger to his own chest and gave his name. “Bruce,” the spirit repeated, as if they were wrapping their mouth around the unfamiliar sound.

Standing together like that, as the spirit child sounded out his name, made Bruce feel a rush of fierce protectiveness. They looked so _young._ Even if they were as powerful as Bruce thought they might be, they were still too young to be alone like this. _This is just like when I found Tim_ , he thought, a surge of love and affection running through him as he thought about his youngest son, so small and left alone for so long. 

As he had the thought, their eyes widened and stared at him with a longing expression. “Can you hear what I’m thinking, Cass?” They looked at him quizzically. “Hmm, no, if you can’t understand me talking you wouldn’t understand me thinking. Perhaps, then, you can sense what I'm feeling?” As he spoke, he focused on his worry for the child, his love for his children, the protectiveness he felt. Then he held one hand out towards them, and with the other pointed back towards his home at the end of the beach. “Will you come stay with me, Cass?” Cass just stared at him.

He searched his limited vocabulary in the ancient tongue for the word he wanted. Once he found it, he pointed at his house again. “Home, Cass?”

They looked at him again, eyes wide and hopeful. He extended his hand again, and this time they took hold. 

* * *

Tim wasn’t quite sure what to think about Cass.

They’d been living with the Waynes for a few days, and they seemed nice enough. Bruce hadn’t said too much about them - only that he’d found them on the beach, that they were young but _powerful_ , and that they had no home. Tim could empathise with that. Unlike Cass, he might have had a house to live in before meeting Bruce, but it certainly hadn’t been much of a home. 

Still. He knew close to nothing about Cass, and he was _curious._

They didn’t talk, not really. Only a word or two to Bruce here and there, in a tongue that no-one else knew. Well, Bruce said that Alfred knew more of the language, but he was in Atlantis at the moment, so that was unhelpful. The only way Cass seemed to communicate was by reading emotions, and even that was hit and miss. Jason, Dick and Bruce had all been able to convey feelings by concentrating on what they wanted Cass to read, but whenever Tim tried, Cass just got frustrated.

Jason speculated that since Cass was an ocean spirit, they might only be able to read ocean creatures. It made sense to Tim, but he still felt a little bit left out. Maybe Bruce could get someone to enchant his bracelet with Cass’s language? Or maybe they could both learn sign language together. He wanted to find some way to communicate, wanted to be able to _know_ Cass, not just exist in the same space.

Cass also didn’t seem to recognise most of the objects in the house, picking them up for examination and reaching out to touch unfamiliar fabrics.

Tim watched them learn the things in the house using this method. Books were met with puzzled frowns, fingers lightly tracing lines of text they couldn’t read. They’d liked the velvet cushion when they first touched it, but stroking the fabric the wrong way had made them abandon it for less fickle fabrics. Any fluffy materials left lying unattended were no longer safe, because Cass would squirrel them away for the treasure horde they were building in their room.

The most interesting reaction Tim had observed came when Dick had left his leather jacket - his _skin_ \- sitting on the couch. 

Cass had lifted the jacket with careful hands, an almost reverent expression on their face. They’d smoothed their hands along the material, gently tracing the scars on the leather. Then they had abruptly walked out of the living room, and Tim had quietly followed. They poked their head into each room they passed, the slightest of frowns on their face.

It turned out that Cass had been looking for Dick. When they found him, they’d pressed the jacket into his hands, making sure he was holding it properly before they let go. 

“Thank you, Cass,” Dick said gently.

Cass had frowned at him, and replied with a word Tim didn’t understand. Dick seemed to understand it, though, because he replied “It is safe here, Cass. The entire house is safe.” Cass had only frowned at him harder. 

So. That was all Tim knew about Cass. Bruce had found them on the beach, they were young and powerful, and they’d had no home. They didn’t seem to have seen most of the objects and materials in the house before. But they did know what Dick’s jacket really was, and they wanted him to keep it safe.

The meagre knowledge he had gathered only made him even more intrigued.

So when Tim saw Cass walking down the beach from his window one night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Tim had slipped out of his bed and followed them.

He found Cass sitting in the shallows on the beach, idly running their fingers through the water as the waves lapped around them. Their expression was content and peaceful, the moonlight giving their normally warm-toned skin an unearthly silver sheen. Then, as Tim watched, they lifted their hand, and a thin stream of water lifted with it, forming a sphere that hovered beneath their palm. They flicked their fingers downwards, and the water splashed back into the waves. They lifted another sphere of water, but this time they fluttered their fingers and the water danced in the air. Their wrist twisted, and the water streamed around their hand. They lifted their other hand and pulled water to it as well. They drew their hands together and combined their two streams of water. 

Tim watched with disbelieving eyes as they spread their arms and moved as if conducting a symphony, making the water twist and dance in front of them.

“Wow,” he breathed out. Cass startled and dropped the water, turning to look at him. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he apologized. Even if he wasn’t sure they understood him, maybe they’d understand his tone.

Cass frowned a little, that puzzled crease forming between their eyes. Then they patted the sand next to them. Was that an invitation? Tim hesitated, then took half a step forward and gestured towards the sand at their side. Cass furrowed their brow and patted the sand again more insistently, before lifting their hand to point at him and then the sand. 

Well, that was clear enough, so he moved forward to sit next to them. They smiled softly at him, their dark eyes lit by an eerie blue sheen in the moonlight. Then they turned their attention back to the waves and made them _dance._

Tim sat in awe by Cass’s side all night, watching the ocean flow and twist in beautiful unnatural ways, until the first pale orange rays of the sun began to light the water. When he stood, he extended a hand towards them, and pointed back up to their home. “Home, Cass?”

Cass nodded and let Tim pull them to their feet. Hand in hand, they made their way home.


End file.
